50%

Of Americans say that Democrats or Republicans in control of Congress won’t make much of a difference in improving the economy. That’s compared with 25 percent who believe the economy will improve if Republicans control Congress, and another 23 percent who believe it will improve if Democrats are in charge, according to an NBC/WSJ/Annenberg survey.

2,844

Number of trips nonprofits have funded for lawmakers during this Congress, “including the most expensive such trip ever funded — a $49,635 trip to Australia for Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) and his wife in February. That trip was paid for by Defence Teaming Centre Inc., an Australian defense industry nonprofit,” according to the Washington Post.

So when you hear a false equivalence that somehow, well, Congress is just broken, it’s not true. What’s broken right now is a Republican Party that repeatedly says no to proven, time-tested strategies to grow the economy, create more jobs, ensure fairness, open up opportunity to all people.

13%

Americans’ approval of Congress in April, inching down from 15% in March, and currently standing only four percentage points higher than the all-time low of 9% in November 2013, says Gallup. Congress’ job approval rating has ranged between 12% and 15% since December.

I think the American people should know that the members of Congress are underpaid. I understand that it’s widely felt that they underperform, but the fact is that this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity in the world.

A typical United States senator spends two-thirds of the last two years of their term raising money.

268

Of the 534 current members of Congress had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 — an increase from last year when it was $966,000, according to OpenSecrets.

Congress is best viewed from a distance — the farther the better — because up close, it is truly ugly. I saw most of Congress as uncivil, incompetent at fulfilling their basic constitutional responsibilities (such as timely appropriations), micromanagerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned and prone to put self (and re-election) before country.

Poetic Justice

Lindsey Graham’s a GOP-er from down in South Carolina,
But he sees a clear path forward in white-bread Iowa,
And in all fairness,
The question of his gayness,
Likely won’t come up as long as he steers clear of homophobic Indiana.